Picked this up on PC having never owned a PS3 due to glowing reviews on these forums. It's a fantastic game. Really scratches that tactical itch.

My only complaints are the tank controls are super wonky on KBAM, the mouse needs to be perfectly aligned with the tank or it keeps trying to turn, and brushing up against a solid object or even a gentle incline can cause the tank to flip out and start rotating uncontrollably, blowing all its AP and usually exposing its weak point to the enemy.

Also the tactical map does a piss-poor job of actually conveying critical information like "what the actual terrain is like" or "is this direction blocked by a huge ass chasm." Multiple times I've taken control of a unit only to find its path blocked by a river or cliff that just didn't appear on the map. Part of this is a first-timer's unfamiliarity with the maps, but it's still frustrating.

Is there perma-death? This is really important to me, I need more Fire Emblem or games like Fire Emblem.

There is, but it's normally easily avoidable.

Your character needs to get shot down then have an enemy capture/coup de grâce them by getting to them before one of your other characters do. If one of your characters get to your fallen character first, a medic gets called to evacuate them.

The interplay between a character's personality and their actual potentials and combat efficiency is always interesting. For example, I'm not that big a fan of Elysse. She's just kinda dull, with that slow, bored way of speaking she does. But she's also far and away probably the best lancer you've got who can one shot a tank to the front if her potentials go off.

On the sniper front, while I do love Marina to death, I like Catherine better solely on her accent.

And then there's Cezary. Nobody likes that prick.

"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
PSN: TheWolfman64 3DS/Pokemon Y: 0774-4614-4065/NNID: the_wolfman64

+1

Ov3rchargeR.I.P. Mass EffectYou were dead to me for yearsRegistered Userregular

Is there perma-death? This is really important to me, I need more Fire Emblem or games like Fire Emblem.

There is, but it's normally easily avoidable.

Your character needs to get shot down then have an enemy capture/coup de grâce them by getting to them before one of your other characters do. If one of your characters get to your fallen character first, a medic gets called to evacuate them.

Is there perma-death? This is really important to me, I need more Fire Emblem or games like Fire Emblem.

There is, but it's normally easily avoidable.

Your character needs to get shot down then have an enemy capture/coup de grâce them by getting to them before one of your other characters do. If one of your characters get to your fallen character first, a medic gets called to evacuate them.

Also I could be wrong, it's been a while, but characters can also perma-die if they're knocked out and aren't picked up in 3 turns. They don't have to be touched by an enemy, they just have to not be touched by ANYONE long enough.

Picked this up on PC having never owned a PS3 due to glowing reviews on these forums. It's a fantastic game. Really scratches that tactical itch.

My only complaints are the tank controls are super wonky on KBAM, the mouse needs to be perfectly aligned with the tank or it keeps trying to turn, and brushing up against a solid object or even a gentle incline can cause the tank to flip out and start rotating uncontrollably, blowing all its AP and usually exposing its weak point to the enemy.

Also the tactical map does a piss-poor job of actually conveying critical information like "what the actual terrain is like" or "is this direction blocked by a huge ass chasm." Multiple times I've taken control of a unit only to find its path blocked by a river or cliff that just didn't appear on the map. Part of this is a first-timer's unfamiliarity with the maps, but it's still frustrating.

Since as a new player you're not likely to know the maps well enough to use a scout's crazy movement to rush cap the objectives, I'd suggest using them to actually scout the terrain and look around. Unless there's something like an enemy clearly marked on the map at the start, I suggest a scout be the first unit you move when starting a mission to look around.

Is there perma-death? This is really important to me, I need more Fire Emblem or games like Fire Emblem.

There is, but it's normally easily avoidable.

Your character needs to get shot down then have an enemy capture/coup de grâce them by getting to them before one of your other characters do. If one of your characters get to your fallen character first, a medic gets called to evacuate them.

Also I could be wrong, it's been a while, but characters can also perma-die if they're knocked out and aren't picked up in 3 turns. They don't have to be touched by an enemy, they just have to not be touched by ANYONE long enough.

Not to mention you can always move them twice or even more. The only penalty is the AP reduction. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's something like

1st turn: 100% AP
2nd turn: 75% AP
3rd turn and beyond: 50%

A scout's second move is still farther than a shock's first.

And then some of them have potentials to just gain their movement back and stuff, and it's just marathon running.

They're great for basically anything but enemy shocks and tanks in terms of dropping them... so those enemy snipers or lancers waiting to pick off your main force are easy targets since they can get in and take them out with little risk (because snipers are squishy, and lancers are terrible at fighting human units, and since neither has interception fire you can line up a full clip of headshots safely)

My memory was that Faldio kills the Marmota's engine, disabling Maximillian, but makes a pointless redemptive sacrifice anyway. On top of that though, right after saying "Welkin, Alicia... good luck" he very nearly gets them and the rest of squad 7 killed

It seems kind of counter-intuitive since they start out incredibly weak on offense, but Scouts are the workhorses of your team. They can cover an incredible amount of terrain, sneak up behind enemies for easy headshots, blow them out of cover with grenades, draw fire while running in the open to change the enemy's facing to put their backs to the rest of the unit, and rush a base so the slow movers can spawn in already on the front line.

It seems kind of counter-intuitive since they start out incredibly weak on offense, but Scouts are the workhorses of your team. They can cover an incredible amount of terrain, sneak up behind enemies for easy headshots, blow them out of cover with grenades, draw fire while running in the open to change the enemy's facing to put their backs to the rest of the unit, and rush a base so the slow movers can spawn in already on the front line.

Their massive movement lets them pull of attacks from behind for headshots or well placed grenades from the get go. They are just incredibly fragile so you need to know when to stop running in one direction and to not outrun your shocktroopers unless you really know the map.

The game has crashed on me twice right at the end of the training introduction. It's very inconvenient. Is that happening to anyone else?

Yes. I think so. The first time you get introduced to all the HQ stuff?

The way I got through it is recruit the first 20 recruits in the list, then don't do any training and don't do any R&D and exit back to the book menu. If you get through that you can safely go back to HQ and actually arrange things. Or at least I could.

God. My scouts officially have a better hit to miss ratio than my fucking sniper, who in two missions, at least 15 shots fired by her, has hit twice. Meanwhile, Aika is just wrecking shit and nailing every headshot.

I actually had a similar experience when I first played VC back on the PS3. However, Snipers become awesome once you give them decent weapons and rank them up somewhere around level 8 or so. In the late game when you unlock the last Battle Potential for snipers, Marina gains a potential called Ultimate Accuracy that basically allows her to never miss with any weapon you give her at any range, aka her aiming circle becomes a small dot, and the best thing is that said potential is PERMANENTLY ACTIVE.

Does it even work on Ty the Immortal? I've had never miss potentials miss because that prick saw it coming. Usually had to get two people to sandwich him and then do the "back of the head pingpong doming"

Maybe it was because of my naivete, but the very first time I played this game and reached *that mission* I was so distraught I couldn't play it for 2 days.
Even for knowing anime tropes, I literally didnt see it coming.

Does it even work on Ty the Immortal? I've had never miss potentials miss because that prick saw it coming. Usually had to get two people to sandwich him and then do the "back of the head pingpong doming"

Never miss means the bullet will go exactly where you want it, but doesn't guarantee that an enemy will still be there.

Is there perma-death? This is really important to me, I need more Fire Emblem or games like Fire Emblem.

There is, but it's normally easily avoidable.

Your character needs to get shot down then have an enemy capture/coup de grâce them by getting to them before one of your other characters do. If one of your characters get to your fallen character first, a medic gets called to evacuate them.

Also I could be wrong, it's been a while, but characters can also perma-die if they're knocked out and aren't picked up in 3 turns. They don't have to be touched by an enemy, they just have to not be touched by ANYONE long enough.

The thing with perma-death seems to be that yeah, you can get CDG'd or die in 3 turns, but:

Enemies don't CDG. They only do so if you happen to die on their "patrol routes" (easy example: Die to the tank in the woods), or if you literally die at point blank so you are standing on them.

Missions rarely last 4 turns. It's possible for a unit to bleed out, but the majority of missions are 4-5 turn affairs if you want a C rank, with 1-2 turn clears possible. Those that aren't generally have a very clear objective that should result in clearing literally everything in the path anyway.

As for scouts: Early on, grenades can generally one hit shock troopers, so your only real risk are tanks and having to take two actions to clear crouching lancers. Later on, they get pretty pinpoint accurate and have some very fun ranged options. Since the game is also rated strictly on time, scouts are also pretty much the only choice on that front.

milski on November 2014

You can't write me off like that! You're just a voice, pal! You don't know a DAMN THING ABOUT RACING!!

I'm liking the turn-based rating more now than when I first played. Since I had some knowledge when I started I was playing very aggressively, always trying to get the A rank on my first go, and sometimes I can push so hard and fall a bit short, and then have to spend 2 turns recovering. The push to go quickly is making for a lot more interesting gameplay than if I played defensively.

The game has crashed on me twice right at the end of the training introduction. It's very inconvenient. Is that happening to anyone else?

Yes. I think so. The first time you get introduced to all the HQ stuff?

The way I got through it is recruit the first 20 recruits in the list, then don't do any training and don't do any R&D and exit back to the book menu. If you get through that you can safely go back to HQ and actually arrange things. Or at least I could.

When Vyse's "Challenger Lover" procs, you know things are gonna get awesome. There's a reason I call him "Vyse the Legend Killer" because he took down his fair share of tough enemies in my playthrough.

As for snipers, Catherine worked well for me; I didn't use Marina that much for some reason.

I think my favorite thing to do with really tough enemies in this game was to drop a smoke round on them, gather up all my shocktroopers - with Rosie - and then just let Big Sister proc (hopefully with undodgeable shot)

This game had some really, stupidly broken things you could do, and Rosie was often the cornerstone for my worst massacres

Also what is freaking hilarious is when you have a sniper pinning your group down, and all you have is a tank or a lancer.
there is a an initial hit/miss mechanic to decide of the shot is direct on crosshairs or if it decides to drift inside of the circle.

a sniper's low health means that even if they are kneeling down, a tank or lancer round is still enough to say ''fuck off'' to the sniper.

Also what is freaking hilarious is when you have a sniper pinning your group down, and all you have is a tank or a lancer.
there is a an initial hit/miss mechanic to decide of the shot is direct on crosshairs or if it decides to drift inside of the circle.

a sniper's low health means that even if they are kneeling down, a tank or lancer round is still enough to say ''fuck off'' to the sniper.

So I have a question, since the game hasn't really done a good job of explaining it; how exactly to "potentials" work? I notice for instance that Rosie has this "Big Sister" one that goes off all the time, but I have no idea why it triggers or what it actually does.

im just saying... sometimes when you start out and don't know the map, and you don't have a sniper in position or with LOS on the target, a tank round or a lancer shot might be the clutch move you need...

So I have a question, since the game hasn't really done a good job of explaining it; how exactly to "potentials" work? I notice for instance that Rosie has this "Big Sister" one that goes off all the time, but I have no idea why it triggers or what it actually does.

Most potentials have an effect, condition, and trigger rate. Some activate basically always, some don't (things like "act again").

Also what is freaking hilarious is when you have a sniper pinning your group down, and all you have is a tank or a lancer.
there is a an initial hit/miss mechanic to decide of the shot is direct on crosshairs or if it decides to drift inside of the circle.

a sniper's low health means that even if they are kneeling down, a tank or lancer round is still enough to say ''fuck off'' to the sniper.

Interesting. I'm starting to notice that a lot of characters seem to bullseye their very first shot, after which normal accuracy rules apply. I rotate the snipers regularly to test it, but I also see it in lancers. Not 100% sure, but it would explain a lot of the crazier shots I've made.